Gender and Power in Online Communication

New communication technologies are often invested with users' hopes for change in the social order.1 Thus the Internet is said to be inherently democratic, leveling traditional distinctions of social status, and creating opportunities for less powerful individuals and groups to participate on a par with members of more powerful groups. Specifically, the Internet has been claimed to lead to greater gender equality, with women, as the socially, politically, and economically less powerful gender, especially likely to reap its benefits. The claims include the following:

[1]  Brenda Danet,et al.  "HMMM...WHERE'S THAT SMOKE COMING FROM?" Writing, Play and Performance on Internet Relay Chat , 1998, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[2]  Amy Bruckman,et al.  Gender Swapping on the Internet , 1993 .

[3]  K. Blair,et al.  Feminist Cyberscapes: Mapping Gendered Academic Spaces , 2000 .

[4]  Michelle Rodino,et al.  Breaking out of Binaries: Reconceptualizing Gender and its Relationship to Languagein Computer-Mediated Communication , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[5]  Wendy Harcourt.  Women@Internet: Creating New Cultures in Cyberspace , 1999 .

[6]  Storm A. King,et al.  Internet Gambling and Pornography: Illustrative Examples of the Psychological Consequences of Communication Anarchy , 1999, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[7]  E. Goffman.  The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life , 1959 .

[8]  Chi Wai Cheung.  A home on the web: Presentations of self on personal homepages , 2000 .

[9]  Sara Kiesler,et al.  Social psychological aspects of computer-mediated communication , 1984 .

[10]  Elizabeth Reid,et al.  Cultural formations in text-based virtual realities , 1994 .

[11]  Nancy Wyatt,et al.  Group dynamics in an E-mail forum , 1996 .

[12]  N. Baym.  Agreements and Disagreements in a Computer-Mediated Discussion , 1996 .

[13]  S. Herring.  Two variants of an electronic message schema , 1996 .

[14]  Maureen M. Ebben.  Women on the net: An exploratory study of gender dynamics on the soc.women computer network , 1994 .

[15]  Nancy G. Leveson,et al.  Women in computing: where are we now? , 1995, CACM.

[16]  B. Epstein,et al.  What Happened to the Women's Movement? , 2001 .

[17]  J. W. McCormick,et al.  Computer friends and foes: Content of undergraduates' electronic mail , 1992 .

[18]  Wendy M. Grossman.  Net.wars , 1997 .

[19]  Cynthia L. Selfe,et al.  Testing Claims for On-Line Conferences , 1991 .

[20]  Arthur L. Norberg,et al.  Credits for the Information Highway. (Book Reviews: Transforming Computer Technology. Information Processing for the Pentagon, 1962-1986.; Where Wizards Stay Up Late. The Origins of the Internet.) , 1996 .

[21]  Susan C. Herring,et al.  Gender and Democracy in Computer-Mediated Communication , 1995, Computerization and Controversy, 2nd Ed..

[22]  Pavel Curtis,et al.  Mudding: Social phenomena in text-based virtual realities. , 1997 .

[23]  Blaise Cronin,et al.  E-Rogenous Zones: Positioning Pornography in the Digital Economy , 2001, Inf. Soc..

[24]  Susan C. Herring,et al.  Gender and Participation in Computer-Mediated Linguistic Discourse. , 1992 .

[25]  Laurel A. Sutton.  Using USENET: Gender, Power, and Silence in Electronic Discourse , 1994 .

[26]  Matthew Lombard,et al.  At the Heart of It All: The Concept of Presence , 2006 .

[27]  Christine B. Smith,et al.  Conduct Control on Usenet , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[28]  Beth E. Kolko,et al.  Representing Bodies in Virtual Space: The Rhetoric of Avatar Design , 1999, Inf. Soc..

[29]  J. Walther.  Computer-Mediated Communication , 1996 .

[30]  M. Lynne Markus,et al.  Finding a happy medium: explaining the negative effects of electronic communication on social life at work , 1994, TOIS.

[31]  Cheris Kramarae.  Technology and Women's Voices: Keeping in Touch , 1988 .

[32]  Marj Kibby.  Babes on the Web: Sex, Identity and the Home Page , 1998 .

[33]  Sheila Lehman,et al.  Mismeasuring Women: A Critique of Research on Computer Ability and Avoidance , 1990, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.

[34]  J. Wajcman.  Feminism Confronts Technology , 1991 .

[35]  Lindsy Van Gelder.  The Strange Case of the Electronic Lover , 1991, Computerization and Controversy, 2nd Ed..

[36]  Philippe Hert,et al.  Social Dynamics of an On-Line Scholarly Debate , 1997 .

[37]  C. Ogan,et al.  The Internet as Mass Medium , 1996, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[38]  Frederick S. Lane,et al.  Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age , 1999 .